Energy plan affects 12M acres in Utah

A federal government plan for allowing geothermal development on public lands could potentially impact about 12 million acres in Utah.

State Bureau of Land Management officials calculated Thursday that the plan would affect nearly 9.5 million acres of BLM land in Utah. In addition, more than 2.7 million acres of Forest Service land in six forest areas in the state may someday host drilling sites for geothermal energy.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a teleconference Wednesday that 118 million acres of BLM land and 79 million acres of National Forest Service land in the West will be open to developing geothermal resources. The plan identified 18 areas in Utah for future geothermal activity.

Most of Utah's Ashley National Forest and parts of other forests, along with about 1 million BLM acres, are proposed in the government plan to be closed for geothermal development.

The federal plan calls for amending 122 BLM land-use plans throughout the United States. Parcels need to be nominated for development before they will be offered in lease sales in the 12 states, including Alaska, that are affected by Kempthorne's announcement. He predicted that geothermal power development could provide as much as 5,540 megawatts of new electricity for 5.5 million homes by 2015.

— Stephen Speckman